StudioZee announces ZephIR! v1.0 now shipping
Infrared ADB product for the Macintosh offers a wonderful experience in
home stereo and theatre control directly from your desktop.
HELENA, Montana, March 31, 2000. studioZee announced today that it’s first
product, the ZephIR!, is now shipping and available at their online store-
www.thezephir.com . This exciting new Macintosh accessory enhances every
Mac users life by giving them full control of their home entertainment
devices right from the desktop. “Surf your music as you surf the net!”
The ZephIR! is a small, stylish ADB device that contols home theatre
components using infrared technology. It works on all ADB Macs from System
7.1 up to System 9.0. The ZephIR! is compatible with the new USB type iMacs
and G4’s using a simple ADB/USB adapter available separately. Because of
its ADB based design, the ZephIR! does not require an AC wall adapter and
does not compete for a serial port.
The ZephIR! is targeted at Macintosh enthusiasts who spend a lot of time at
the keyboard and desire to enjoy their home stereo components while they
work or play. The ideal user is someone who has home theatre equipment and
likes to surf, chat, work, or just generally spend time at their Mac.
Among the components normally controlled by a ZephIR! are the increasingly
popular multi-disc CD players, receivers, VCRs, mini-discs, TVs, digital
satellite, cable TV, and others.
studioZee first unveiled the ZephIR! at Macworld Expo 2000 in San Francisco
and offered a special to early adopters. Since then, they have taken the
feedback from the early adopters and focused on making the interface as
intuitive and simple as possible while adding quite a number of new
features.
The application provided with the ZephIR! is truly feature rich. It allows
the user to create “Custom Remotes” right on their desktop. Custom Remotes
are easy to setup and can contain mixtures of buttons from any components.
This means that with a click of the mouse, any functions available on those
multitudes of “coffee table remotes” can be performed from the desktop. The
ZephIR! application goes on to much more sophisticated levels than simple
virtual remote controllers, however.
The ZephIR! application comes with an extremely friendly and powerful
multi-disc CD management system. After the simple process of
“net-cataloging” their CDs, user’s can browse their CD Library with the
ZephIR! application. Next the Magazine Manager incorporates standard drag
and drop techniques to quickly and easily put a multi-disc CD player right
on the desktop. Any titles or tracks are then playable by simply double
clicking on them. Multiple multi-disc CD players are easily handled. As an
extra bonus, a Playlist manager lets you create, edit, and save playlists
to be downloaded anytime with the click of a button. All drag and drop.
The robust ZephIR! application also introduces Channel Guides, an
innovative way to help users surf their DSS, cable TV, and DMX channels.
Channel Guides allow the user to easily transform the complicated numerical
interface on channel based components into a customizable menu on the
desktop. Channel Guides can be placed on custom remotes by simply dragging
them there.
The ZephIR! hardware is completely Applescript based and therefore savvy to
more sophisticated control by the really serious power user. For home
automation, the ZephIR! is easily integrated into an Xtension environment (
www.shed.com ) . Hypercard is a very useful tool to make the ZephIR!
perform some really cool tricks such as titling mini-discs and entering CD
titles into multi-disc CD players by simply typing from the keyboard. The
ZephIR! also works over networks.
The ZephIR! is compatible with most inexpensive infrared relaying systems
to allow the user to control components in other rooms.
studioZees online store is located at www.thezephir.com and was opened on
March 31, 2000. Tutorials and technical information can be found there as
well. The ZephIR! is currently shipping to US and Canada. International
shipping requests can be directed to intsales@thezephir.com. All other
requests should be directed to info@thezephir.com .
